1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to the field of data monitoring and presentation, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for efficiently exposing nodes on a map while monitoring entities or components within a complex heterogeneous system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Monitoring system performance can provide engineers and system operators with time critical information that can often help to alleviate or avert catastrophe and also design better systems. This is especially true for complex heterogeneous systems. Complex heterogenous systems are systems that can have entities and components that are diverse in their functionality and operability. In these complex heterogenous systems, it can often be necessary to monitor metrics defined for these systems in order to ensure that the components or entities in the system are functioning optimally. A metric is a standard of measurement that can be used for mathematical or statistical analysis. Metrics can include performance data or configuration information that can be used to setup software or hardware parameters. As the size of complex heterogeneous systems increase, so does the complexity of monitoring various metrics. Moreover, as complex heterogeneous systems become more diverse, it can become progressively more difficult to collect and analyze the various metrics collected.
For example, in complex heterogeneous systems, it can be necessary to monitor realtime performance to ensure that the network functions optimally. A content delivery network (CDN) is an example of a complex heterogeneous system and can include e-Business systems and communication networks. Since the CDN can consist of entities and diverse components, the size and heterogeneous characteristics of these CDNs can make it extremely difficult to perform real time analysis. Entities and components can include, but are not limited to servers, switches, routers, caches, load dispatchers (LD) and traffic managers. As a result, it is often required to perform tests on a scalable version of the network. Even then, personnel and expertise are required to dutifully monitor each component, entity or subsystem of the network, along with any associated applications databases and platforms. This post analysis monitoring can be extremely time consuming and very expensive.
Even in cases when performance metrics or attributes are collected, the collected data must be analyzed and presented in a manner that facilitates easy interpretation. Monitoring realtime performance requires simultaneous assessment of the performance metrics for all of the components or entities forming the CDN. Realtime values of the performance associated attributes must be available in order to determine what attributes are causing a bottleneck and what components, entities or subsystems might have resources available to accommodate additional traffic.
Importantly, collection and visualization of system information such as performance metrics and configuration data, requires communication between the agents collecting the information from the entities or components within the system and a graphical display used to display a map of the collected information. In current systems, specific communication protocols are required for communicating information between the agents, components or entities and the display map. The nodes of the display map corresponding to the entities or components in the system must communicate using the same protocol as the agents collecting the information. Given the fact that the nodes must communicate with the agents using the same protocol, the nodes in the display map must have intimate knowledge of the agents in the system. As a result of these constraints, the proximity and type of graphical display that can be used for monitoring and visualizing the metrics or attributes can be limited.
Given these inherent drawbacks associated with realtime monitoring and visualization of metrics or attributes associated with heterogeneous systems, there exists a need to provide a more efficient approach to dynamically visualizing updated metrics in these kinds of systems.